Number of private flights increased sharply, also in the Netherlands

The number of private jet flights in Europe has almost quadrupled from 2020 to 2022. Research bureau CE Delft concludes this in a Thursday research which it carried out on behalf of Greenpeace. Last year’s more than half a million private flights in Europe emitted about 3.4 million tons of CO₂ out, almost ten times as many as two years earlier.

A similar increase can be seen in the Netherlands, from nearly 2,500 jets that took to the air in 2020 to over 12,000 last year. The 53,000 tons of carbon dioxide that was released is a tiny part of all CO₂emissions in the Netherlands – less than 0.1 percent. But per individual traveler such a private trip contributes much more to climate change than an average scheduled flight. A private jet emitted an average of 4.34 tons of CO last year₂ per flight, while a seat in a scheduled flight from Schiphol to Barcelona is estimated to be equivalent to 120 kilos. By way of comparison: the footprint of the average Dutch person was, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics 13 tons of CO₂ in 2020.

Many private jets also stay closer to home than Barcelona. From the Netherlands, Amsterdam-London, Maastricht-Liège and Rotterdam-London were the most popular routes. The destinations are often also easily accessible by train, the researchers write. Eight trains run from Amsterdam to London every day. On the other hand, jets fly further on average than they did two years ago, as witnessed by the higher CO₂emissions per flight. In 2020, 3 percent of private flights were longer than 3,000 kilometers, compared to 9 percent last year.

Corona

Greenpeace paid for the research, but Ad Ragas, professor of Environmental Science at Radboud University, does not expect the content to be less reliable. “CE Delft is a reliable club, comparable to TNO. I have never seen a report from them where I thought the content had been purchased.”

The corona crisis explains part of the increase in private jet flights, Ragas thinks. “Business people who absolutely had to go somewhere and had normally booked a scheduled flight then took a private jet.” Private jet charter GlobeAir writes that more people took a private flight for the first time during the pandemic. Ragas: “It may be that they then got used to it.”

“Shameless,” responds Greenpeace Twitter. “The rich are increasingly taking a private jet, the most polluting way of travel. While we pay for the consequences of the climate crisis.” The environmental movement wants a ban on private jets.